04. Does one leg of the trip take longer than the other? In other words, does the return trip from space to Earth take longer than going from Earth to space? (A K2S Question)

From The Space Library

In the present day and age spacecraft leave the Earth like rockets and they return either like airplanes (the Space Shuttle and SpaceShipOne) or like a re-entry capsule (Apollo or Soyuz). To reach space in the Shuttle takes eight and one-half minutes, and the return journey takes on the order of an hour, depending on the landing site used. It takes the Soyuz capsule approximately three hours to get into the correct position for Earth entry, but only thirty minutes to drop through the atmosphere. So Soyuz takes longer to return to Earth, mainly because the speed through the atmosphere is limited as the human crew must be protected from the extreme heat generated from friction on the outside of the spacecraft.

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Answer provided by Hazel McAndrews

Question and Answer extracted from the book Kids to Space - by Lonnie Schorer

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